Spider Solitaire

Overview

Spider is the best-known two-deck solitaire, and it scales: a gentle one-suit warm-up at one end, a genuinely hard four-suit puzzle at the other.

It is played across ten tableau columns with two full decks — 104 cards. You build downward by rank and assemble complete King-to-Ace runs of a single suit. Each finished run is removed automatically, and clearing all eight wins the game.

What makes it endure is the tension between tidying now and planning ahead. A move that looks helpful can bury a card you need, and the stock deals a fresh row onto every column whether you are ready or not.

The starting layout

54 cards are dealt to the tableau — six each to the first four columns, five to the remaining six — and only the top card of each column starts face up. The other 50 cards stay in the stock.

Since every stock deal puts one card on each of the ten columns, that is exactly five deals available across the whole game. Knowing you have five and no more changes how freely you spend them.

The tableau

Cards build downward by rank, and the suit does not matter when you place one card on another. A 7 of Hearts sits happily on an 8 of Clubs, Spades or Diamonds, so you can build mixed piles while working through the hidden cards.

The catch is moving them. A correctly ordered same-suit run can be picked up and moved as one unit. A mixed-suit pile cannot — you have to move the cards individually or reorganise the pile first.

That gap is the whole game. Placing cards together is easy because suits do not restrict you; placing them in the right suit is what eventually clears the table.

Goal

Complete eight same-suit sequences, each running King down to Ace. A finished sequence is removed from the tableau automatically. Two decks means eight runs; clear them all and you win.

How to play

• Build downward by rank, regardless of suit.
• Only a same-suit descending run moves together.
• Any card or valid run may fill an empty column.
• A complete same-suit King-to-Ace run is removed automatically.
• A face-down card turns over whenever it becomes exposed.
• Tap the stock to deal another row when you have no better move.

Put a 6 of Hearts on a 7 of Clubs and the ranks are right, but those two can never travel together. Before making a move, ask whether it builds toward a clean same-suit run or just makes the tableau look tidier.

Empty columns

An empty column is Spider’s most valuable resource. Unlike Klondike and Yukon, which only accept a King, any card or valid run can go into an empty Spider column.

That makes it working space: somewhere to park cards while you split a mixed pile, shift a long same-suit run, or dig out something buried. Clearing a column deliberately is often the strongest move on the board — but only with a plan for it. Filling it again without improving anything puts you back where you started.

Stock rules

Tap the stock to deal one card to every tableau column — ten cards at a time, five times in a game. This is unlike Klondike, where the stock feeds a single waste pile one card at a time.

There is one hard restriction: you cannot deal while any column is empty. Every space must be filled first.

That makes timing critical. If you have an empty column, resist dealing — use the space to reorganise while you still have it, because the moment another row lands, every column grows and cards you were counting on may be buried again.

Difficulty: 1, 2 or 4 suits

1 Suit is the introduction. With every card in the same suit, any descending sequence moves as a group, so you can concentrate on uncovering cards, making space and timing the stock.

2 Suits is the middle ground and the default. Building is still suit-blind, but keeping the two suits sorted starts to matter because only same-suit runs travel.

4 Suits is the full game. Mixed piles are far easier to create and far harder to undo, so you need to think about where each card eventually belongs rather than where it can go right now.

Changing the suit count starts a fresh deal.

Strategy tips

• Prefer same-suit builds. A clean run moves as a group; a mixed one is stuck.
• Make empty columns and guard them. They are the only place you can freely break a pile apart.
• Expose hidden cards. Every turn-up is information and often a new option.
• Count your deals. There are five. Spending one to escape a dull position is expensive.
• Do not build mixed piles without a reason. They are sometimes unavoidable, but each one is a problem postponed.
• Protect long same-suit runs. Breaking one up to solve a small problem usually costs more than it saves.

Controls and features

• Drag cards and valid same-suit runs to their destinations.
• Tap a card to see available moves.
• Tap the stock to deal another row when the tableau allows it.
• Use Undo to experiment and recover from mistakes.
• Start a New Game at any time, or switch between 1, 2 and 4 suits.

If you liked Spider

Spiderette is the same game on one deck and seven columns — four runs to clear instead of eight, and quick enough for a short sitting. It is the best place to learn Spider’s ideas before taking on the two-deck version.

Scorpion also builds same-suit runs, but lets you move any card with whatever is stacked on top of it, ordered or not — a very different kind of freedom. And Forty Thieves is the other two-deck game here: build down by suit, but only ever one card at a time.